The weekend of July 5th and 6th, 2025 will capture the attention of the global fandom: during the Anime Expo in Los Angeles, The Summer Hikaru Died and Bad Girl will be screened in advance. These two productions, despite belonging to opposite genres, share technical ambition and immediate global distribution.
The Summer Hikaru Died :
Rural terror and existential mourning
Adapting the Mokumokuren manga required preserving its mix of melancholy and horror, and CygamesPictures entrusted that task to director Ryōhei Takeshita, whose resume in scenes of supernatural tension was forged in Jujutsu Kaisen .
The series will air simultaneously on Nippon TV, ABEMA, and Netflix, ensuring immediate reach following its Anime Expo premiere.
The play is set in Kubitachi, an isolated valley where Yoshiki discovers that his friend Hikaru has been replaced by an entity that reproduces memories and gestures with macabre precision.
This approach doesn't resort to explicit shocks: it cultivates a psychological terror based on prolonged silences, evasive glances, and the suspicion that everyday reality has been replaced by an imperfect replica.
The visual team enhances this atmosphere with “dorodoro” sequences, animated by Masanobu Hiraoka, whose fluid lines distort the image when the supernatural erupts.
The contrast is reinforced by Yūichi Takahashi's designs, characterized by clean lines that make the impostor's organic alterations more disturbing.
The soundtrack alternates between Vaundy's opening theme, "Saikai," and TOOBOE's closing theme, "Anata wa Kaibutsu," both of which emphasize the duality between affection and threat.
The original manga, published in 2021, has sold more than three million copies and has been nominated for the Manga Taishō and Eisner Awards, indicating a prior interest that Netflix hopes to turn into a global phenomenon.
The special screening at TOHO Cinemas Shinjuku and the panel with the author in Los Angeles reinforce the strategy of simultaneous release in the two major anime markets.
Bad Girl :
School comedy with a subversive twist
Twenty-four hours after the premiere of Hikaru, the Anime Expo will show the first episode of Bad Girl , an adaptation of Nikumaru's yonkoma produced by the Bridge studio.
Directed by Takeshi Furuta and written by Shoji Yonemura, the series satirizes the clichés of the “model girl” by chronicling the self-imposed metamorphosis of Yū Yutani: a brilliant student who deliberately becomes rebellious in order to impress Atori Mizutori, the chairwoman of the disciplinary committee.
Unlike other school comedies, the dramatic driving force is not involuntary transgression, but Yū's conscious calculation, whose descent into mischief measures how far he will give up his identity to obtain emotional recognition.
The vocal cast —Azusa Tachibana (Yū) and Niina Hanamiya (Atori)—sustains the humor without diluting the romantic tension.
The music by Arisa Okehazama, a regular on The Apothecary Diaries , and the energetic opening scene, “Super Big Love!” by Tenrogun, set a pop tone that contrasts with the school's sober interiors; this visual dissonance reinforces the critical reading of school hierarchies.
Following its run at Anime Expo, the regular premiere will arrive on July 6 on Tokyo MX and BS11, in addition to Amazon Prime Video, DMM TV, ABEMA, and the global platform HIDIVE, facilitating a simultaneous rollout in English-speaking and Asian markets.
Twin premieres and industrial synergy
Scheduling two premieres of such disparate genres at the same event is no coincidence. Netflix is betting on The Summer Hikaru Died as a flagship of psychological horror, while King Amusement Creative and HIDIVE are seeking to capture audiences demanding lighter narratives after the dramatic intensity of other titles on the summer calendar with Bad Girl .
Anime Expo 2025 will offer an eloquent contrast between the existential disturbance of The Summer Hikaru Died and the luminous irreverence of Bad Girl .
The first invites us to question what defines the authenticity of a bond when physical presence no longer guarantees humanity; the second demonstrates that the search for acceptance can subvert the most rigid codes of conduct.
By presenting both premieres in the same venue and on the same weekend, the industry demonstrates that modern anime can seamlessly encompass everything from cosmic melancholy to the most lighthearted student comedy.
For critics, fans, and novice anime fans, the event promises to become the benchmark for the narrative direction of Japanese animation in the second half of the decade.
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